The fact that there were 400 issues needing immediate fixing is one clear indication that the site was not ready to be released, and that the managment disciplines were clearly not where they needed to be.

>> it sounds like they've finally given IT a seat at the grownup's table

From the reports that are beginning to trickle out, it sounds as though IT's lack of a voice was the major culprit here. That allowed optimism and unwarranted overconfidence to take their toll. In their defense, Amazon, Ebay, Facbook et al weren't born giants like the heathare.gov was; rather, they started small, so problems could be attacked while they were still localized, affecting few people.

One way or the other, authors and case writers are going to have a field day with this for years to come.

It seems to me this all-important priority of the Obama administration had the B-team working 9-5 on it right up until the moment of admitted failure. Then a few A-tream members were brought in and lots of belated hard work has begun to set things right. I agree with John Engates comments, elsewhere on this page.

I think Healthcare.gov will be playing catchup for a long time, still. On the plus side, it sounds like they've finally given IT a seat at the grownup's table so maybe they will be able to pull this together. Or at least together enough...... Stay tuned. I know I am...

CMS communications director confirmed Monday that the part of the back end intended to process subsidy payments to insurers is not done. She said the government will use the Medicare payment transaction system while the HealthCare.gov payment transaction system is "built out." But still, there would appear to a new mountain of issues on the back end that consumers won't see so much, but insurers sure will.

As InformationWeek Government readers were busy firming up their fiscal year 2015 budgets, we asked them to rate more than 30 IT initiatives in terms of importance and current leadership focus. No surprise, among more than 30 options, security is No. 1. After that, things get less predictable.